The Importance of Being There
by SomethingMoreCreative
Summary: Piper didn't understand why this happened to her. She knew that it wasn't that big of a deal, but it still didn't make sense. Why did she have to be the one that was alone on Valentine's Day? Jasper fluff. Happy Valentine's Day!


**A/N: Hey, guys! Happy Valentine's Day! So, I wrote you guys a little one-shot, and I hope it makes Single's Awareness Day a little bit better. ;)**

**I'm planning some new stuff, so be sure to get ready for that, and head over to my profile if you want more information. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****_Percy Jackson and the Olympians _****or ****_The Heroes of Olympus. _**

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"You know, this really does suck."

Piper looked over at Annabeth as she shoved a fistful of popcorn into her mouth, speaking around the food.

Piper nodded and sighed, pulling her knees up to her chest. "I know."

They were sitting on the floor in Annabeth's house. They were in front of the TV, watching a bunch of crappy chick flicks while stuffing their faces with tons of junk food to try and lighten the mood. So far, it hadn't done much to help.

Today was February fourteenth, more commonly known as Valentine's Day.

Piper had never hated love so much in her entire life.

She had expected this Valentine's Day to be awesome. When she was little, she had always loved the stupid holiday. For some reason, it reminded her of her mom (she had no idea why; Piper hadn't known hardly anything about her). Most of the time, her dad was gone, but he normally remembered that she loved the holiday, and he always sent her a card and a bouquet of roses. Sure, they would be from her dad, but in some ways she thought that it was somehow even better than being from a "valentine."

But this year, she had actually _had_ a valentine. Jason wasn't exactly the most romantic, but she knew that he was going to do whatever he had to so he could convince himself that this would be perfect for the both of them. She had set her expectations too high, and they had crashed down around her.

Jason and Percy had gotten a call from Reyna and Frank yesterday night. Apparently, something major had happened out there that they needed help with right away. As in, _couldn't_ wait until the next day.

Piper remembered the exact minute he had left. They had been in bed, and she remembered hearing his voice and waking up. When she rolled over and bumped into him, he tightened one of his arms around her and hung up the phone. It was 2:36 in the morning, but when Jason explained what was happening and that he had to leave for a few days, she was wide awake. She had watched from her perch on the bed as he packed a bag and pulled on some clothes. He had hugged her quickly, kissed her a few times, and promised to call her. Then he was gone.

She had thought that it was just a bad dream, but when she woke up by herself and found a note from Jason on the counter that said, "I love you," she remembered that he had actually had to leave.

She had spent the better part of Valentine's Day walking aimlessly around Camp in a pair of sweatpants, glaring at all of the campers running around with their boyfriends and girlfriends. That should have been her today.

She had almost decided to go back to her house and sleep until Jason came back home, but when she spotted the Athena kids at the pavilion, she noticed that Annabeth wasn't with them. Sure, the older girl didn't spend _all_ of her time with her brothers and sisters, but when Piper thought about it, she hadn't seen Annabeth all day.

Walking through the new streets in Camp Half Blood's city still amazed Piper. She couldn't believe that Annabeth and the Athena cabin had designed all of it on their own. She didn't know any of the architectural terms for any of it, but she knew that it was all beautiful.

Annabeth had built each of the Heroes of Olympus (the gods had given them that title as if it were something that she needed to write on her resume for the future) a house on one of the end streets. Currently, there were five houses side by side, each with a different design. Jason and Piper were sharing one along with Percy and Annabeth. Annabeth had built one for Frank and Hazel to use when they came out to Camp Half Blood, and Nico and Leo had one each. Nico didn't stay in his very much, but he had helped Annabeth design it, and everyone knew that he loved it just as much as the rest of them loved their own.

Piper ran up the steps and past the few moonlace plants growing in the flower bed and knocked on the door. She didn't hear anything for a few seconds, but she opened the door and ran inside anyway.

"Annabeth?" Piper called as she walked through the hallway. There were a few pictures of Percy and Annabeth together hanging on the walls and sitting on the furniture, and Piper smiled when she spotted all of them.

"In here." She heard Annabeth's voice, and Piper wandered deeper into the house.

The blonde was curled up in the floor in a pile of blankets. She had a few soda cans lying around, and she was holding the remote to the flat screen TV that was hanging on the wall.

The Hephaestus cabin had hooked them up with TV. Leo had gone into extreme ADHD mode, and he had tapped into one of the United States satellites. The Hermes cabin had stolen a flat screen, and the Hephaestus cabin had duplicated them and come up with their own television frequency. Lately, Piper had been hearing around that some of the demigods were thinking about doing a few TV shows to air.

Piper thought that it was pretty cool. She really loved Netflix.

"What are you doing?" Piper asked as she sat down on the couch above Annabeth.

She shrugged, "Wasting time and waiting for Percy to get back. That sounds pathetic, but I really don't care."

Piper understood. She had been doing the exact same thing.

"I guess you thought that this was going to be your first really great Valentine's Day, huh?" Piper said softly.

Annabeth looked up at her, and her eyes looked a little watery. "How did you know that?"

The daughter of love frowned and slipped down to the floor to sit beside Annabeth. "Because I was thinking that exact same thing until Jason had to leave."

Annabeth gave Piper a look, and apparently she passed the test because Annabeth handed her a chocolate covered cherry. "I mean, I get that it was for the good of Camp Jupiter and some shit like that, but seriously? I just wanted one normal Valentine's Day with my boyfriend, you know?"

"I totally understand." Piper said. "It's just not very fair that _they _had to go."

"Yeah!" Annabeth said. "Why couldn't someone else go instead? And why couldn't they just take us too? Being there with him would be better than being here without him."

Piper nodded furiously. Normally, the two of them weren't like this. They were both warriors, and they definitely didn't need a boy beside them to function properly, but today was _Valentine's Day_ for gods sake. If they wanted to mope around and complain about being lonely, then fuck anyone who didn't want to hear about it.

"So, do you want to hang here with me?" Annabeth asked.

Piper came close to a smile when she said, "Duh. Let me run home and get my favorite blanket and a sports bra."

Ω

So that was how they ended up eating until they felt like they were going to throw up and watching America's Next Top Model reruns.

Annabeth had convinced some of the Hermes kids to bust out of Camp and go down to the gas station a few miles away. She had sent them plenty of money (which was something that the gods kept giving them continuously as if it would make up for the war) and they had come back with arms full of beer, chips, and candy.

Piper had always been amazed with Annabeth's alcohol tolerance. She had already downed most of it, and she didn't even seem fazed.

"Percy called while you were getting your stuff." Annabeth said as one of their favorite girls was voted off. The blonde crushed one of the beer cans against her forehead as she finished it and tossed it over the back of the couch.

"What did he say?" Piper asked.

"He said that Frank was in a really bad accident yesterday, and that Reyna had needed some help getting control back. Apparently, the camp was attacked by a horde of trolls and when Frank was trying to hold them off, one of them caught him mid-change and cut his side open. Percy said that he looked awful when they got there, but he's doing okay now. He also said that some of the Romans were blaming each other for Frank's accident and that it was crazy over there. Jason and Reyna are still trying to calm some of them down." Annabeth said.

Piper frowned, "How's Hazel doing?"

"Percy said that she was okay now that Frank was awake. I'm sure she was losing it when they didn't know if he would make it or not." Annabeth said.

She nodded. "Did Percy say when they were coming back home?"

"He said in a few days if they were lucky." Her voice dropped lower, and her frown grew.

Piper huffed and said, "Will you pass me the chocolate? I'm about to drown my sorrows in these Snickers bars."

Ω

They made it through four entire seasons of America's Next Top Model, and it was almost eleven-thirty.

Piper was already starting to yawn, and Annabeth looked just as sleepy. Even though they had both eaten enough sugar to theoretically keep them awake for days, they were both exhausted. Piper had discovered that moping was hard work.

"Annabeth," Piper said. "I think that I'm going to go home and just sleep until he gets back."

She nodded, "That actually sounds like an awesome idea. Tyra already made me angry when she voted off Amy."

Piper nodded too and gathered up some of the trash that she could reach. "I'll see you in the morning, Annabeth. Try and get some sleep."

"You too, Piper." Annabeth answered.

She stumbled out of Annabeth's house and down the street to her own. Somehow, she made it inside and to her bedroom before her tears started falling and she passed out.

Ω

_"Piper!"_

_ She twirled at the sound of her name, and her electric blue dress fanned out around her like a princess's. Her hair was pulled up into a beautiful up-do, and she had on a pair of black heels. _

_ Jason was standing in the middle of the street, holding a bouquet of flowers. He was smiling hugely, and he had on a sleek, black tux. His blonde hair was styled perfectly. Piper thought that he looked like a little bit like a model. _

_ "Sparky!" She yelled happily, running into his arms. _

_ He hugged her tighter and tighter, pressing his lips everywhere he could reach without letting go of her. _

_ Piper seriously thought she was in heaven. She thought that she had died and gone to Elysium without even knowing it. This was all she had wanted, just to be with Jason on Valentine's Day. _

_ "Pipes," he whispered, pulling back to look in her eyes. "I love you. Happy Valentine's Day." _

Ω

Piper groaned as something nudged her side. She just wanted to get back to her awesome dream, and whatever was trying to wake her up could just shove it up their-

"Piper," someone whispered, shaking her shoulder.

"What?" She groaned. She just wanted to sleep and dream until Jason got home! Didn't the person who was disturbing her realize that? There was a good chance that she was about to cut someone's throat of they didn't leave her alone and let her go back to sleep.

"Piper," they said again. "Wake up, baby."

She finally blinked her eyes open, and when her vision cleared she couldn't decide if she was still dreaming or if she was actually awake.

Jason was leaning over her. He had dark purple circles under his blue eyes, and his hair was standing up at weird angles. He was smiling down at her.

"Jason?" She asked, reaching up to set her hand on his jaw.

He leaned into her touch and closed his eyes for half of a second before continuing to stare at her. "Happy Valentine's Day. Sorry I'm a little late."

Piper jerked him down and pulled his lips to hers. She didn't realize that she had tears leaking out of her eyes until she felt Jason wiping them away with his fingertips.

"You're here." She said against his lips.

Jason pulled back and framed her face with both of his hands, kissing her forehead and the tip of her nose. "I'm here. I'm here. I'm sorry that I had to leave yesterday morning. I didn't want you to be alone on Valentine's Day. I'm sorry."

She tangled her legs with his and tried to keep in as much contact as she could with him. "That's okay. They needed your help, but I missed you."

"I missed you too." Jason kissed her quickly, and when he looked back at her, his eyes were sparkling. "Do you want your present now or in the morning?"

She grinned at him and put her hand on his chest. "Is that even a question? Now!"

He smiled too and pulled something from his pocket without even moving from where he was hovering over her. He set a black box on her chest and stared at it until she picked it up and opened it.

She almost dropped it.

"I had Leo make it from a diamond that I found. I thought that you could wear it on this chain, or if you didn't want to, you could put it on your camp necklace." Jason said, brushing his hand across her neck.

Inside the box was a sleek, diamond necklace. The pendant was incredible, and it sparkled every which way that she turned to look at it. Piper reached up and flipped the diamond over. _I love you, Pipes _was engraved into the Imperial Gold that covered that back of the diamond, and suddenly, Piper felt like she could cry again.

"Oh my gods, Jason," Piper said switching her gaze to stare up at him again. "I love it. Thank you so much."

She kissed him again, and after a few seconds, he was grinning against her lips.

He pulled back and said, "I love you."

"I love you, too." She whispered.

And yeah. That pretty much made it the best Valentine's Day ever.

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**A/N: Thanks for reading! Leave a review!**

**-SomethingMoreCreative**


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